Wire Of Fate
by FoxBane1191
Summary: Everyone in the alliance had been warned about the Uchiha's space-time ability. What they hadn't been told was that getting pulled into it with no warning would dump her ass into another dimension with no way back. Nori finds herself in a world with no chakra, no shinobi and youkai around every corner. And then add in all these encounters with a Western Lord...Sesshomaru/MistOC
1. Drop In A Bucket

Chapter One: A Drop In A Bucket

Kuriarare Kushimaru found Nori on the streets when she was three years old and she'd always thought of that as a mixed blessing and a vile curse. He pulled her from the muck and starvation of the slums in a no name village in the middle of no where. He'd found her and kept her when the Bloodline Purges were raging and calling for _her_ blood. He'd closed his long fingered hand around the collar of her ripped shirt and told her that she was his now and she'd better get used to it or he'd kill her instead. She'd gone limp in his hold and let him take her away and she was never certain whether that was her worst or best decision she'd ever made.

Later she supposed it had been the blood and her feral disposition that drew him to her. At three she'd been alone for almost a year, scrounging and starving and half wild with it. She'd been fighting when he'd first seen her, a sharpened piece of metal clutched between her fingers as she stabbed at her attackers. Two men had cornered her in a back alley behind a restaurant and even at three she'd known they didn't have good intentions. It had taken her three seconds to move. She'd never even spotted Kushimaru sitting on the roof, not before or after her fight but he'd been watching. It seemed like he was always watching after that, his dark eyes always on her.

She'd thrown a brick at the first man, straining her muscles but hitting him in the face anyway. He'd gone down, blood spurting from a broken nose. But she'd known even then that he wouldn't stay down for long. She'd retrieved a long shard of metal she'd meticulously sharpened that she kept in her sleeve. The second man lost three fingers to the razor sharp metal before he even realized she had it out. Then she'd had an opening to run, she could have fled. But she'd seen what men like this could do to children so she hadn't. A red misted rage had already descended on her and she wasn't going to let these men go if she could help it. And in retrospect maybe that was what really caught Kushimaru's attention.

She'd lunged at the first man, who'd still conveniently been on his knees and in her relatively short reach. Her piece of scrap metal, at least eight inches long and narrow, had gone right through his throat and out the other side, ripping chunks out with it on the exit. He'd begun to gurgle and a hot splash of blood had poured over her hand and face. Near feral at that point she'd spun to face the second man, who'd still been clutching at his savaged hand with a gaping expression. Her improvised knife had gone right into his eye, nearly to the hilt. She'd had to kick his knees out to reach but he'd gone down like a flopping fish and her knife had gone in with not even a seconds hesitation.

A deathly silence had filled the alley and Nori remembered the way her mind had been nearly numb. The two men had slumped to the ground, almost in slow motion, and she remembered the way the second had somehow stayed on his knees upright, with the scrap of metal in his eye and his head slumped forward. She remembered blinking at the first men she'd ever killed and then reaching out to try to get her knife back. It hadn't wanted to come out, stuck in the bone, and her efforts had sent the man flopping the rest of the way over. She'd huffed, thinking of all the effort she'd put into that knife and then she'd turned away, rubbing at her face, trying to wipe away some of the sticky gore covering her cheeks.

Then the eerie sound of Kushimaru's laughter had filled the evening air. The sound was low and rolling and rough like sand, all menace and silk and dead things. That first time hearing him laugh would stick with her for years to come, sometimes haunting her very dreams. The sound of her salvation from the muck and filth and the starvation of the slums. She'd made him laugh and so he'd taken her away from the stinking rot that she'd been crawling in for most of her early memories.

She'd remember the first time she looked up at him for the rest of her life too. He'd been sitting on the ledge of the roof, his head thrown back with laughter that moved his entire body. He'd been long and lean and perched like a deadly spider, with the slender silhouette of Nuibari raised over his shoulder like an enormous needle. His blonde hair, like ashy straw, had been wild and spiky around his head and the white porcelain of his Anbu mask had been bright in the dim alley light. The four waving lines of Kirigakure marked the forehead of his mask. She'd seen ninja before but that first glimpse of Kushimaru was like seeing them all over again for the first time. He'd been the start of her life and the end of it at the same time. The start of her path to being a shinobi and the death of her life fighting for every scrap that went into her mouth.  
Then he'd leaped down from his ledge and scooped her up like a kitten by the scruff. The collar of her filthy shirt had made her choke for a long moment as she squirmed. He'd been almost impossibly tall, especially to her three year old self, and he'd lifted her clear off the ground with no effort whatsoever.

"I think I like you, little badger!" He'd told her cheerfully as he ignored her hissing and spitting. It had taken her years to understand the comparison between herself and a badger, who commonly attacked for little to no reason and was known for having a particularly vicious temper. At the time, the comparison had been more than accurate.  
"Let go!" She'd squealed, swiping at him with nails and feet and anything she could. She'd scolded herself mentally all the while for leaving her scrap knife behind in the mans eye, stuck or not.  
He'd shaken her then, and she remembered feeling like her brain was going to leak from her ears before he was done. As soon as she'd stopped struggling though he'd stopped shaking. In later years she'd decide that he'd actually been particularly gentle, considering who he was.  
"What's the name then, little badger?" He'd poked at her with his other hand and cackled when she kicked at him with a bare foot.  
"Don't have to tell you nothin'." She'd spat, quite stupidly in retrospect. She'd been lucky Kushimaru hadn't stabbed her through with Nuibari. Or even worse, left her there to continue on her own.  
"I think that we have to get one thing straight." He'd drawled, in the tone she'd later learn was a sign of a building temper. "I've decided I'm going to keep you and that means you're mine. You'd better get used to it, badger, or maybe I'll just kill you instead. Understand?"  
"Keep me fer what?" She'd asked suspiciously, squinting at him and going limp in his grasp.  
He'd tilted his head then, like a tall spindly crane or stork and just looked at her for several long menacing seconds. With the narrow slits of his mask she'd been unable to see his face. Only the blank slate of his Anbu mask looked back at her and she'd been unable to guess what he was feeling or thinking. It'd been completely white except for a dark green triangle over the chin, the thin black lines circling the slanted eye slits and the four black wavy lines for Kiri.

"Well that really depends on you, now doesn't it?" Then he'd cackled again, like he'd been struck by a funny thought. "Now, my little badger, what's your name?" She'd known with the instincts of a three year old street rat that she had better answer this time.  
"Miyazato Norimasa." She'd replied sullenly, while she'd eyed this man that had claimed her when she'd never been claimed since her mother had died a year before. She'd been as afraid as she'd been hopeful.  
"Hmm, a boy's name?" He'd laughed even as he'd tucked her under one lanky arm like a bag of potatoes and leaped back up to the roof.  
After that he traveled fast, occasionally throwing aimless chatter at her, but mostly silent. He'd been traveling faster than she'd ever thought possible and she'd reveled in the freedom of it all while trying not to throw up with motion sickness. Covered in a child molesters blood, she'd been carried away from the village she'd been slowly dying in, and headed towards an uncertain future with one of the seven swordsman of Kirigakure.  
They made it back to Kirigakure by nightfall and the simple meal he'd cooked for them was the first time she'd eaten in three days. Her hands had been shaking as she tried to eat like a human but it hadn't lasted. That first taste had broken what little control she'd possessed and Kushimaru had only laughed when she finally fell on the meal with clutching fingers and a ravenous mouth. She'd been so grateful that she would have done anything for him. Anything at all.

When she'd looked up, so stuffed her stomach felt like an awful cramping mess, Kushimaru had removed his mask and she'd gotten her first look at his face. And to her dying day she knew she would remember his face. He'd been one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen, then and for years and years to come. His eyes had been dark, nearly black, and slanted much like the eyes of his mask. His hair was wild and spiky and messy but it suited his long limbed body and his pleasant face. He'd been clean shaven with a strong jaw and high cheekbones. His lips had been full and prone to a slightly manic, but no less handsome smile. It wasn't until years later that she understood why he kept his face covered, had done so since he was ten years old and why he _never_ removed the mask in anyone's company but her own. Why he would later buy her her own mask, when it became apparent that she would be a beautiful woman just like he was a beautiful man.

The next day began what Kushimaru lovingly called survival training but what Nori had been positive was legitimate torture. A year of the hardest training her young body could handle. Which was as it turned out an awful lot. Every day she'd thought she was going to die, run through on Nuibari's thin blade or just laying down from exhaustion and never getting up.  
But despite that Kushimaru had kept her fed and provided clean clothes and let her bathe every day. He'd taken care of her when no one else had bothered since her mother. He'd been hurtful and cruel and hard to deal with but he's provided for her anyway. He'd taught her taijutsu and how to use ninja wire. He'd hired a tutor to teach her to read and write. He'd beat her to a pulp every day but he didn't let anyone else touch her, not even his fellow swordsmen and friend, Jinpachi. At the end of the year, when she was still alive, he'd cackled his peculiar laugh and told her she'd earned an apprenticeship. With it came a little miniature copy of Nuibari, only a few feet long, to practice with. That had been the auspicious beginning of her life with Kuriarare Kushimaru.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The years passed quickly and yet it seemed like forever at the same time. So many things happened in those years that she scarce knew where to even begin.  
Training with Kushimaru. Long days filled with rigorous drills and surprise attacks and a desperate sort of exhaustion every day. Cuts and slices littering her hands from practicing with ninja wire. Bruises on top of bruises on top of bruises. Discovering her Kekkei Genkai, which she'd always had vague memories of her mother using. Seeing Kushimaru's pleasure when she showed him. His satisfaction when she surprised him. The pain that came with disappointing him.

Rebels began to pop up all over the Land of Water. Yagura wasn't liked by anyone and it was a constant battle between his loyalists and those that hated what he was doing to Kirigakure. The Bloodline Purges continued and even intensified. She'd been grateful then that her bloodline came with no obvious signs, like the Hyuuga or have any distinctive clan markings. It wasn't uncommon for the street to run red with blood as people were dragged out into the street and executed. She didn't like it, hated it even, but she learned to step through the carnage like she didn't care.

Making it to genin and then chuunin shortly after. She began to go on missions with Kushimaru, shadowing his every move. As his registered apprentice she had every right to go where he did, no matter where he went. He was often tasked with assassination missions and she learned dozens of ways to kill someone without a single sound. They did a stint in the hunter-nin division. Kushimaru liked traps and hunting down his prey, so they stayed in that division longer than others. She learned how to set an ambush and to think ten steps ahead of the prey.

Kushimaru dying three weeks after her tenth birthday, while she watched from the trees. A man named Mighto Duy giving everything he had for his teammates, so that they could escape in the fray with vital information. One, she observed clinically, that might very well be his son. This man, a proclaimed genin, giving his life and killing three of the Seven in one encounter. Kuriarare Kushimaru, Akebino Jinin and Munashi Jinpachi gone in one fell swoop, two with no apprentice to take their place. It would be a bloody field day when two of the swords were returned to Kiri with no wielder. There would be dozens vying for the rights to claim one of the swords.  
From that moment on her life changed again. She'd had two ways to label her life before the moment Kushimaru fell. Before He Found Her and After He Found Her and in that moment a third label entered her life, After He Died. It was like being cut loose from an anchor that had been holding her steady for years.  
She'd gathered Nuibari from his corpse, taken the Anbu style mask from his face and burned the body, the way he would have wanted her to. Then she'd turned and made her way back to Kirigakure in a fog of confusion. Her teeth were filed to sharp points the very next day, a tradition of the seven swordsman of the Mist.  
There for a while she'd been in a fog. A chuunin is a civil war ridden village that wasn't particularly bloodless in the first place. She'd made tokubetsu jounin by her eleventh birthday and then been promoted to full jounin within a year after that. Missions passed in a sort of blood splattered blur, one after another with hardly any rest in between. Despite her young age she was one of the seven swordsman now and she was required to bloody Nuibari for her village every day or the consequences wouldn't be to her liking.

And then Mei taking over as Mizukage, the shit storm that was Akatsuki and the war that stretched across the nations. It really was an enormous cluster fuck and she'd managed to get herself right smack dab in the middle of it all.

She'd been warned about the Kamui's abilities. Everyone in the shinobi alliance had been warned about the Uchiha's weird space-time ability. What they hadn't said was that getting pulled into it in conjunction with a wild flare of chakra from it's user would dump her ass into another dimension with no possible way back.

She'd found herself in a world that was so unlike her own that it was frankly a little ridiculous. A different language, a different culture, a different world completely. No shinobi, no chakra users, no ninja villages, no god damn indoor plumbing. It was a feudal world, vaguely like what she'd learned about the warring eras in her own world. And demons! They were everywhere, good and bad and in between. It took her a while to adjust, to say the fucking least.

A/N: Before you panic I am still working on Wild Inuzuka Rose! I just have some rewriting to do on that fic. This fic is going to be a mix between Naruto and Inuyasha but it will all take place in Inuyasha. I'm not sure whether I'm going to keep it labeled as a crossover or not.


	2. Of Bears And Fish

Chapter Two: Of Bears And Fish

10 Years Later...

Nori studied the little sliver of pink jewel, glinting ominously between her fingers. This was the fifth such sliver she'd come across in the last year and a half. This one had come from the heart of a mutated bear youkai who'd been eating local men and doing worse to the women. There was an odd feel coming off of the shard that rubbed oddly across her nerves, almost grating. If she had to compare the feeling she would almost say it felt a little like Momochi's 'demon' chakra. Or maybe like the jewel was exuding the smallest amount of killing intent. Which was...unusual. It was something she wouldn't have thought twice about in _her_ world but in this one? Unusual.

Frown hidden behind her porcelain mask, Nori moved her eyes from the shard to the youkai it had come from. The little shard had actually been embedded in the bear youkai's heart and for the life of her she couldn't figure how it'd gotten there without killing the poor bastard. But then again she'd seen those infected by the jewel heal from some pretty nasty things. She'd even blown the leg off of one such infected youkai and he'd gotten up again like she'd only tapped him.

This youkai was nearly triple the size he should be and sort of...gnarly to boot. The jewel had clearly done _something_ to the poor bastard. He'd been crazed and foaming at the mouth, babbling about the sick things he'd done in the effort to gain power. A malicious cloud had radiated from him that would have been right at home in Kirigakure when it was known as the Bloody Mist. Bear youkai were fairly peaceable, at least that's what she'd gathered from the few she'd met in her time here but this one...He'd been skinning and eating men from the local villages and what he'd done to the women made her shudder in disgust and rage.

Somehow it had to be these jewel pieces that were causing all of this. She'd been told by several people that they were shards to a bigger whole and each shard contained unimaginable power. But power was just power...it wasn't good or bad or anything in between, it just was. It was how you used that power that really mattered. So was it the jewel causing all these youkai to go crazy? Was it maybe amplifying traits the victims already had? Perhaps it took a penchant for promiscuity and turned it into...whatever the bear youkai was now. Maybe it took whatever bad trait it could latch onto and then went to town?

The first four shards had all come from equally unhinged beings, rampaging through her territory. Three youkai and a human man, or what used to be three youkai and a man. They'd all been twisted out of shape, just as much so as this bear youkai although each had displayed their own unique insanity. The man had even evolved into some kind of...parasitic larvae type being that gave her the damn willies even thinking back on him. It was disturbing having these things happen, especially when they were happening on her own turf.

It's been a long ten years since she'd been dropped here and she'd learned that compared to her home world this one was fairly...mundane. Not peaceful, because there was always some kind of conflict going on somewhere, but...civilian. Everyone here was either a civilian, a spiritualist of some sort or a youkai. There was no jutsu, there was no chakra, there was no electrical conveniences. Most people here didn't know anything beyond the most basic self defense. And hell, the women didn't even know that! She'd settled herself into the life of a wandering mercenary easily, and she hadn't had to use anything above genin skills in years, this place was so tame. Granted it was Kirigakure genin skills, which were usually a little more lethal than some other shinobi villages, but still...

That being said it wasn't normal having youkai suddenly lose their shit and turn into raving lunatics and start killing left, right and center. Not as much as every body seemed to think anyway. In her travels she'd found that most youkai were fairly peaceful and actually pretty reclusive. They usually preferred to stay in their hidden little hamlets and dens and keep to their own kind. Kitsune, tanuki, kuma and she'd even come across some nature spirits and elementals. Most of them were pacifists.

Of course youkai attacks weren't unheard of, they did happen, and there was always malevolent spirits wandering about but they didn't usually happen in Nori's territory. She'd staked her claim on a large area to the North, encompassing several villages and two very prosperous trade routes, and she'd been defending it with extreme prejudice for the last several years. Any youkai in her territory knew that if they started messing with villages or innocents on her land they were going to pay for it in blood. The surrounding villagers all knew her, knew who to go to and where to leave messages if they were in trouble. She'd even received gift offerings and been asked for blessings, like she was some kind of kami or something. Having these attacks start suddenly, within the last two years, pointed even more towards the jewel causing insanity of the worst sort. There was no other explanation for the sudden bravery it would take to cause trouble on _her_ land.

So these shards were getting around and fucking with her life's order and when they got into someone they did...not very nice things to them. Oh, it definitely gave them plenty of power but it also obviously did something not right to their minds while it was at it. It was like it took the first negative trait it could find and used that trait to control it's host and turn it into a vehicle of evil. Of course this was all speculation on her part. She wouldn't really know for sure until she talked to someone who had first hand knowledge on the subject. And she had someone in mind, she just had to find them. Which was why she was out of her territory in the first place.

"Good job, nee-sama! You kicked his butt easy! One move and pow! Down he went!" A young voice called, drawing her attention from the slaughtered bear youkai to a bouncing figure waiting at the edge of the road.

Nori sighed, torn between reluctant fondness and exasperation. "Soten, what part of 'wait until I call for you' do you not understand?" She asked, hopping from her perch on the youkai's enormous form to the packed dirt road. She landed without a single sound.

The little thunder youkai pouted, crossing her arms across her chest stubbornly. "You killed him in one move! There was no way I was in danger and I wanted to see!" She protested loudly.

"Listen when I give an order or I'll hang you from a tree by your toes and let the next youkai eat you." Nori told her gruffly, even though they both knew she didn't mean it. She must be losing some of her Mist-nin scare factor too because the little girl just rolled her eyes without a single pause to think about the threat.

"These jewel guys sure pack a punch but that's nothing compared to you!" Soten chirped, grinning widely at the masked kunoichi. "Nuibari went right through the beast!"

"Hnn." Nori shrugged, unconcerned. She hadn't come across many in this land that offered her a challenge. That was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she wouldn't likely die anytime soon and a curse because she hadn't had an honest fight in _ages_. Of course she hadn't met a daiyoukai yet but she'd been thinking about tracking one down just to see if they actually made her work up an honest sweat. It was doubtful but hope springs eternal and all that.

Not to say that those here didn't have their own sort of power, because they did, but it was a different sort than her own. Her skill set was different, unlike any she'd met in her ten years here. If one of her skills didn't take down an opponent than she switched to the next and found something that worked. Most the time her chakra enforced strength and speed was more than enough, that and Nuibari. Add in her jounin level repertoire of jutsu and it was hard even for other shinobi to keep up with her, let alone the people here. She hadn't become an elite jounin on her looks alone after all.

"Can we have fish for dinner?" Soten asked, after she'd circled around the youkai making admiring sounds and returned to looking at Nori with wide eager eyes. Really Nori should probably discourage the bloodthirsty habits the girl had in spades but she found it oddly cute on the little youkai.

Nori took a moment to seal the shard into her storage scroll as she thought on the girls request. "There's a river close by, we can be there in an hour and have plenty of time to fish and set up camp." She said at last, reaching down to ruffle the girl's carefully groomed hair.

"Can you carry me?!" Soten pleaded, even as she frantically smoothed her hair back into it's immaculate bun.

Nori tapped the chin of her mask, grinning teasingly and tilting her head like she had to think about it. "I don't know..." She said slowly, knowing the girl would hear the grin in her voice.

"Please, please, please!" The demoness wriggled in place, her eyes getting wider if that was possible. Like giant sparkling rubies. The girl was sure to be a man killer when she was older.

"Come on then." Nori gestured the girl closer and Soten hopped up eagerly, leaping the distance with ease and seating herself on Nori's shoulder. The girl often rode on her shoulder and delighted in how fast and high Nori could go as she leaped through the trees. To a human's eye they were no more than a passing blur. "Ready?"

"You bet!" Soten grinned, anchoring herself to her perch by gripping Nuibari's wrapped hilt. The sword gave a low pulse of chakra but didn't protest, used to Soten's presence by now.

Nori burst into motion, the demoness' squealing laughter following as she leaped into the trees, and couldn't help the fond quirk to her lips. Soten had been with her for nearly two years now and she had to admit that she was more than passingly fond of the young youkai. The girl lived with her, traveled with her and depended on her and Nori often had to wonder if this was how Kushimaru had felt when he'd scooped her up. Soten certainly looked at her with hero worship in her eyes, just the way Nori had looked at Kushimaru.

She'd rescued Soten from a hoard of lesser youkai just before the girl would have been devoured. She hadn't been in time to save her dragon servant, Koryu, but she'd gotten to the girl before she'd been harmed too badly. She'd been rail thin, starved, dirty, wounded and terrified, having been held captive for weeks but she'd been alive. A homicidal wave of rage had washed over Nori when she'd seen the girl, tied over a roasting pit and screaming for all she was worth, and she'd wiped out the entire den of youkai with more violence than she'd unleashed since Kirigakure. Since then Soten had been attached to her like super glue and Nori had to say she didn't altogether mind.

Apparently after her older brothers had died Soten had been the last of her tribe and alone but for her servant, Koryu. She'd been unable to defend her home from the encroaching band of lesser youkai and she'd been taken captive while the youkai turned her home into a cesspool of filth. The things Nori had seen in that castle...well there was a reason she'd burned it to the ground. She didn't even want to think of the things Soten must have witnessed in her weeks of captivity, the slow cooking and eating of her dragon servant among them.

Needless to say, Nori had a few _things_ to say to the people who had killed Soten's brothers and then left a little girl to fend for herself. At the very least they should have found her somewhere else to live, or made sure she was safe or _something._ She supposed she'd have the chance to rip them a new one soon, seeing as she wanted to talk to those very people about the jewel shards.

Of course by human standards Soten was old enough to take care of herself, which was probably how this Kagome and Inuyasha had justified leaving her behind. It had been two weeks into Nori and Soten's partnership that Nori found out the girls actual age. When Soten told her she was in her fifties she'd gaped like a fish, realizing the girl was almost twenty years her senior. Which was...wow. Super young by youkai standards but to Nori's human sensibilities it'd been a little jarring. Of course by youkai standards she was practically a baby, barely out of infancy really. Youkai, especially those with the capability to become daiyoukai, grew very, very, slowly. So Soten was still just a toddler no matter her actual physical age. Of course Soten had been just as astonished to find out that Nori was indeed _not_ a daiyoukai and even more bewildered by Nori's younger age.

 _That_ was a problem that Nori was pretty used to dealing with at this point. Apparently this world was the universe of the most boring genetic color palette _ever_. In her world she'd seen blue, green, pink, gray, white, silver, blonde, and even multicolored hair and eyes. Here one either had the standard black and brown or one must be some kind of youkai or spirit. It was a universal truth here.

With her wild mane of long plum purple hair she stood out immediately. Add in her Anbu mask, Nuibari on her back, and her other odd qualities and that apparently spelled youkai to anyone that looked at her here. When she'd first showed up she'd had a hell of a time just getting someone to sit still long enough to try to converse. They'd thought she was some kind of youkai witch, speaking tongues and casting spells on the innocent. Even now the very thought made her roll her eyes. So she'd tested a few henge appearances and then finally had some luck. She'd had to stay henged, disguised as a foreigner, for several months until she had the language down pat. While she'd done that she'd had to work for a farming family to earn her keep and the idea of _ever_ standing that close to a cow again still made her want to snarl.

But then the language barrier hadn't been there anymore and she'd been free to explore this odd place she'd found herself in. She'd wandered the whole landmass for awhile, then even crossed the water for a year or two, but she'd eventually come back. She hadn't found anything out there that interested her. In fact what she'd found across the water was even more diverse from what she was used to. Here at least they had samurai and almost the same sort of honor code as the one she was used to. And she'd already learned the difficult as fuck language, which was a major draw.

For the last five years she'd been sticking to the same area and staking a hard claim on it. Any disputes she settled. Any attacks she handled. Anyone needed help she offered. She kept the area bandit free and she discouraged warlords invading her turf rather violently. The villagers and locals had at first been wary, even violent, but as the years passed they'd calmed down and actually begun to call her Lady when she passed through. A house had even been set up for her in one particular village and it was kept cared for and supplied for anytime she needed it. All her 'offerings' were sent there and anytime she was needed that's where she received messengers and requests. She and Soten swung by once a month and spent several days there, enjoying the feather futons and the cooked meals. To this day her 'people' didn't know whether she was youkai or spirit or kami. They didn't particularly question it.

That had a lot to do with her mask she supposed. She never took it off unless she was behind closed doors or alone with Soten. The villagers never saw her face and she'd even heard the tale that she simply didn't have one, which had made her laugh herself silly when she'd heard it. That and her unchanging state seemed to baffle them. It baffled her too because she hadn't aged a single day in all the years she'd been here. Somehow when the portal took her off she'd just simply stopped aging altogether. She'd been twenty six when she'd been caught up in the Kamui. She was almost thirty seven now and she could still pass for a twenty year old. As far as she could figure the Kamui's space-time ability had paused her aging until she was returned to her world. And seeing as she had no way back to her world...she kinda figured she might be stuck like this for a really long fucking time. Really that wasn't too much of a hardship but it was sort of odd.

Early afternoon found the duo settling into a nice grassy clearing, butted up against a wide creek. Perfect for catching fish and Nori grinned at Soten's delighted laugh as she flipped into the clearing, sending the little girl tumbling through the air, only to be caught securely in Nori's arms before she could hit the ground.

"Fire duty or fishing duty?" Nori asked, already knowing the answer as she dumped the demoness onto her feet in the middle of the clearing.

"Fire duty!" Soten claimed quickly, just as Nori knew she would. For all the little youkai's love for fish she absolutely hated to get wet.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, this dirt bag mighta had a jewel shard but he sure as hell don't now." Inuyasha muttered, kicking the prone body. Lifting his nose he tried to catch the scent of the victor again, salty yet sweet like some kinda flower0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.0. There was another scent too, vaguely familiar, like a lightning storm. They were faint though, hard to catch.

"How peculiar." Miroku muttered, tapping a finger to his chin in thought as he peered at the single wound over the youkai's heart.

"What is it?" Kagome asked, trying not to get queasy as she followed his eyes to the small quarter sized wound. She grimaced, but tried to study the wound objectively. It was difficult with the putrid smell wafting off the bear's thick fur. It was matted and filthy and she could swear a piece of some kind of human entrails was dangling from his belt.

Miroku motioned Kagome and Sango closer, then pointed at the wound to draw their attention to the edges. "You see the edges here? This was no youki or reiki attack, there would be burns along the edges and the wound would be mildly cauterized. And if you look here..." He led them around to the other side of the enormous corpse and pointed at another small hole. "Here is the exit wound. Whatever did this is some sort of weapon, thinner even than a katana, and thrown with such force as to completely tear through the youkai and emerge on the other side. My guess is some form of launching weapon similar to a crossbow."

"Huh." Kagome frowned, feeling a little green about the study topic but admitting that it _was_ very odd.

"Maybe a youkai with the strength to throw a weapon of some sort?" Sango suggested, her own eyes studying the corpse with clinical interest. There was not a single scrape, bruise or wound anywhere else on the beast, telling her that this battle had been won with a single blow.

"Human." Inuyasha said, circling around the roadside to see which direction the scent had gone. "A human woman." He added, a little incredulous himself at the information.

"A human woman?" Miroku repeated in surprise, raising his brows.

"A launching weapon of some sort then. I certainly could not throw something hard enough to do this." The demon slayer said, stroking a hand down Kirara's spine. Hiraikotsu was a throwing weapon but it was made to slice through it's opposition, but this was a stab wound, a stab wound that had pierced tough youkai muscle and then the rib cage twice over.

"Hey, you know, I think one of these scents is familiar!" Shippo exclaimed from Kagome's shoulder, eyes eager as he tried to sniff the air furiously.

Inuyasha nodded, scowling as he tried to place the scent to a face. "I ain't familiar enough with it to remember where I've smelled them before." He grunted, then paused as he caught the scent trail again, leading off through the trees. "They went this way, whoever they are."

"Do we follow the trail then?" Miroku asked, turning his eyes to the miko. His staff jingled lightly as he propped it up against his shoulder. "I'm assuming this woman has the shard now."

Kagome frowned, tilting her head to the side and closing her eyes to try and 'feel' for the shards. What she found made her frown deepen as she tried to decipher the signals. "She definitely has it, and she's moving fast, almost as fast as Kouga. I...think..." She gasped, opening her eyes in shock. "I think she might have five shards!"

"Five?" Sango gasped, eyes wide. They hadn't come across that many shards in one place for quite some time.

Kagome nodded then shook her head in frustration, not sure exactly what she was feeling. "I'm pretty sure she has five but...they're muted some how and I'm almost positive she's not actually using the shards. I can normally feel them when they're in use but these ones seem...dormant almost." She sighed, unable to find the right words.

"Keh, like we have that kind of luck." Inuyasha muttered, then crouched and gestured Kagome over. "Faster we catch up the faster we can figure out what the hell is goin' on."

A/N: So I changed the characters name. From Asuga to Norimasa. I just...every time I wrote Asuga I grimaced. I didn't end up liking it as much as I did at first.

The Inuyasha timeline is going to be all screwy by the way. I'm not going to be following it really closely because most of Nori's interactions are going to be with Sesshomaru not Inuyasha and the gang. They'll play peripheral parts and I might put the final show down in here but I'm not sure yet. Naraku may or may not make a direct appearance, I'm not sure yet.


	3. The Nose Knows

Chapter Three: The Nose Knows

"We're being followed." Nori told her little companion, although she'd known for quite some time now. Cocking her head she 'felt' for the youkai that had been following them for nearly three days now.

"Wow! They must be pretty fast to keep up with you, nee-sama!" Soten said with the easy confidence that came from hero worship. Soten had a ridiculous amount of surety in her 'big sister'. Nori had felt much the same for Kushimaru until he'd been taken out by a single genin and she could only hope that she never broke Soten's confidence in her the same way.

"Not fast enough to catch up, they've been trying to follow my scent for the last three days." She laughed mischievously, shaking her head at herself and wondering what they'd thought of her 'presents' that she'd left along the way. She'd been leading them on a merry little chase, taking increasingly absurd routes, back tracking frequently and circling in seemingly aimless patterns. Oh course if she'd truly wanted to she could have used a scent masking jutsu and disappeared but she'd been having fun.

One thing was for certain though, whoever was following her was one stubborn son of a bitch. And they had to have a pretty damned good nose because there was a few places that they couldn't have tracked her through with anything but scent alone. She hadn't been going full out but she'd gradually increased her speed to about half capacity, a pace she could keep up for days with no rest if she had to. Yet her pursuer had kept on her tail doggedly, showing a stubbornness and stamina she didn't often see in this world. She guessed they must have picked up her scent at the bear youkai's corpse and started trailing her from there. So either they were after the shard or...well she couldn't really think of any other reason for following her around like this.

"I think it's about time I let them catch up, don't you?" Nori asked mildly. There was a widening in the road near here that would be perfect for a confrontation. It didn't play to her strengths in stealth but she didn't really need stealth for this. They already knew she was here so there was no point in hiding.

"Can I watch this time?!" Soten begged, a cute little bloodthirsty grin stretching her lips. "Please?!"

Nori laughed, flipping down from the tree, keeping a squealing Soten in place on her shoulder with a little judicious chakra usage. "I suppose, ya little brat, but if I say back ff you better listen." She said firmly, breaking from the tree cover in a few bounds and launching herself out into the air in one giant leap, landing in the middle of the road.

The road was just as she'd remembered it. When she'd first arrived in this world she'd taken the time to map out and scour this entire land mass before she'd crossed the sea. She knew most of the geography but sometimes things changed. Humans were a fast adapting species and frequently shifted trade routes and roads. But still, this one was the same, wide and with a grassy field along one side with the trees on the other.

"I will, I promise!" Soten assured, her head bobbing vigorously. Her red eyes were dark and eager, her whole body wriggling in excitement, even as she tried to contain herself.

"Bloodthirsty little shit." Nori murmured affectionately. Soten was a tough little cookie, prone to violent displays and brat like temper tantrums but she was a cute kid. A little eager for blood sometimes but then Nori was a Mist-nin so she couldn't say much about that.

"I'm not little!" Soten protested with a sharp pout, crossing her arms over her chest armor.

"Whatever you say, short stack." Nori drawled placidly. She figured the fact that Soten could perch on her shoulder no problem and her legs didn't even dangle half way down her chest said something. Granted Nori was pretty tall for a woman, especially in this world...but that didn't mean that Soten wasn't diminutive.

"Grr, I'm a perfectly acceptable height for my age!" Soten growled, turning her head away with a sniff. She'd in fact grown quite a bit since Nori had acquired her and Nori figured her growth couldn't be stunted all that bad because of her captivity. Not that she had anyway of knowing how tall a thunder youkai should be...

"Sure, sure." Nori was glad her sharp grin was covered by her mask and her voice stayed perfectly mild. The tone alone was enough to drive Soten up the wall, especially when the girl was dying for an argument.

"Argh!" Soten wailed in frustration, face beginning to turn beet red in her temper.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They're close now!" Kagome said into Inuyasha's ear, pointing a finger through the passing foliage in the direction of the shards.

"Yeah, scents getting stronger." Inuyasha confirmed grimly, putting on a burst of speed as Kagome waved an arm to signal up to the others, riding on Kirara.

Kagome herself felt more than relieved that they were finally catching up. They'd been running after this woman's scent from sunup to sundown for three days now and she was exhausted, and she hadn't even been the one running! She couldn't even imagine how Inuyasha and Kirara must feel. Inuyasha wouldn't ever say he was tired but he'd actually slept all night last night, which was a major clue. That and his temper was on it's very last thread now.

Whoever they were chasing was obviously _letting_ them catch up. There was no doubt in Kagome's mind that this woman could have easily lost them already if she'd wanted too. The practical jokes and traps left in her wake more than made that clear. She'd had the time to set up these traps and stay ahead of them for days. Inuyasha had been running full out for days and he couldn't manage to close the gap, so this woman must _want_ them to catch up.

She was a little torn between thinking this whole situation was amusing and wanting to scream in frustration. This woman clearly had a sick sense of humor, there was no doubt. Normally Kagome would have found that funny but not when the jokes were aimed in her direction.

The first 'incident' had been...a real number that's for sure. Inuyasha's eyebrows and his hair around his scalp were still stained purple and Kagome had purple up her arms and under her fingernails. And her white shirt was _never_ going to be the same ever again. Using some kind of purple metal wire the woman had improvised a pressure activated trap, right in the very path Inuyasha ran along. He'd stumbled over the wire, nearly going tumbling down, and then an explosion of purple slush had come blasting out of a cleverly hidden hole in the ground. They'd thought it was poison at first, leading to a mad scramble of confusion...it ended up being pulped berries with ink made from fire ashes mixed together into a thick slime. That had cost them a few hours as they cleaned themselves off and _tried_ to figured out how she'd done it...tried being the important word

Then her scent had dead ended in a little clearing with a short rock in the middle with a wide flat top. Right on top of that rock, done with dozens of pebbles, was a rather...profane image that Kagome wasn't even sure was anatomically correct. Even now the thought of that picture made her face turn tomato red and she'd refused to let Shippo get a look at it. _Inuyasha_ had even blushed a little. How the woman had gotten so much detail across using only pebbles...after circling the clearing a few times Inuyasha had found a tiny little arrow barely bigger than Kagome's thumb nail carved into a tree trunk. When they'd followed the arrow it led right to the woman's scent trail again.

The next trap had ended up with Inuyasha cussing up a storm, strung up in a tree by his feet. How this mystery woman had known exactly where they would camp was a puzzle...

Then they'd been led to a hot spring that had another drawing waiting for them. This time done on paper and left under a rock weight. It looked for all the world like it'd been done in crayon. In it were two figures relaxing in the hot springs, one much smaller than the other and figures obscured by steam. Instead of heads two obnoxious faces were drawn, tongues stuck out and eyelids drawn down in the universal 'ha ha' face. The message was loud and clear and Inuyasha had fumed for a good hour afterwards.

Now they were finally catching up and she had no real idea of what to expect. This woman had proven that she didn't have any malicious intent, at least if her traps could be used as an example. Kagome could name several ways they could have been much worse and much more dangerous. But still, this woman was clearly fast, able to hide her scent, and had better stamina than most youkai. There was no way she wasn't using some kind of special augmentation to bolster her strength.

Which kind of blew Kagome's idea that the shards weren't being used out of the water. How else would a human woman gain so much power? And yet, she didn't seem to be evil...There were few that could resist the jewel shards influence let alone the influence of five shards together. Kouga was one of the exceptions they'd come across and he was the minority not the majority.

"Get ready!" Inuyasha warned sharply as he broke from the treeline and came out onto a wide dirt road. There, a figure standing up ahead.

Kagome leaped free of Inuyasha with long practice, keeping herself from stumbling and backed away, giving Inuyasha plenty of space to swing Tessaiga. Behind her Kirara roared as she landed with the others. Kagome couldn't help but feel relieved at the presence of the others at her back.

"Hand over the jewel shards!" Inuyasha demanded, pointing a finger and resting one hand on his swords hilt. His shoulders were drawn back and stiff, feet planted wide and he looked ready to draw Tessaiga at any moment.

"Hmm, did you say something?" The figure asked airily, turning to face them as though just realizing they were there. The voice was rich, with a low rasp but undoubtedly female.

Kagome stared, unable to help herself. This was supposed to be a human woman yet Kagome really couldn't tell she was human. Female definitely, but human? If Inuyasha hadn't said so she never would have suspected.

The mask drew her fascinated eyes first, although it certainly wasn't the last feature to catch her attention. Porcelain white, like a blank slate, with a blue triangle over the chin, sly slanted eye slits and four curvy lines on the brow. Surrounding the mask was a wild fall of spiky plum purple hair, more a mane than anything else with several braids woven through it. The longest braid, as thick as Kagome's wrist, fell all the way down to her hips. She was tall, even taller than Inuyasha, with long graceful limbs. She wore a sleeveless skin tight top with blue side panels and a high neck. Loose bandages were wrapped around her slender neck like a scarf and striped gray finger less gloves covered her arms to her elbows. Fitted navy blue hakama that matched her top were tucked into slender knee high boots with a pouch tied to one thigh. Her posture was easy, limbs relaxed and legs planted shoulder width apart, confident. A long narrow sword hilt with an eye like a needle sat over one shoulder and on the other...

"Soten?!" Shippo cried, leaping from Sango's arms and scurrying forward. Kagome took a step after him, staring with wide eyes at the thunder youkai. They hadn't seen the girl since they'd been in the Raimei valley.

"Shippo-kun!" Soten exclaimed, leaning forward on her perch and waving enthusiastically. "I didn't know it was you guys following us! Man, it took you long enough!" She said with a wicked little cackle.

"Keh, what are you doin' here?" Inuyasha cut into the reunion, stepping in front of Kagome before she could get any closer.

Soten sniffed, crossing her arms and turning her nose up at Inuyasha. "I can be anywhere I wanna be!"

"These are the infamous jewel shard collectors?" The stranger asked, tilting her head to the side like a bird and presumably studying the group from behind her mask. Kagome caught the foreign accent in her words this time and wondered where this strange woman was from.

"You've heard of us then?" Miroku asked cautiously, his staff jingling as he slid from his perch on Kirara. Sango was only a second behind him.

"Hmm, yes." The tone of her voice was mild, giving absolutely nothing away. Not seeing her facial expression was beginning to weird Kagome out, and the eerie way she moved didn't help either. "Introduce us, Soten."

"That guy there is Inuyasha, and the miko is Kagome." Soten said, pointing at them and then grinning at Shippo with a light blush. "And that's Shippo!" She snapped out of her blush quickly though and shrugged at the rest of them "I don't know the rest of these guys."

"My name is Miroku and this is Sango." Miroku added politely. As polite as his voice was Kagome could hear the click of his beads as he fiddled with his wrapped hand.

"I've heard stories about the jewel collectors, although I didn't know it was you following me." She paused and tilted her head at them again. "I honestly thought you'd catch up faster." There was definitely sardonic amusement in her voice now.

"Whatever, lady, just give us the jewel shards and we'll be on our way." Inuyasha snarled, his irritation barely leashed. He sounded like he was only seconds away from attacking the woman.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Nori stared at the group, honestly feeling a little let down. She'd heard stories about this group and she'd expected a little...more. She'd heard all sorts of crazy things and she'd never been quite sure which tales to believe. She certainly hadn't expected them to be the same people that left Soten to fend for herself. A little bubble of rage simmered in her gut.

"Inuyasha..." The miko chided tensely, clenching a hand in the red fabric of his hoari. Her eyes were nervous, and blue, a genetic anomaly to be sure. Nori immediately pegged her as the weak link. Miko were strong against youkai, as long as they were trained, but against a human like Nori...well.

"I suppose you want me to hand over my shards then..." Nori raised both brows behind her mask, even though they couldn't see the expression.

"That would be most appreciated." The monk replied, giving her a polite smile. He had a handsome face and a charming smile but the way he fiddled with the beads around his hand was leading her to believe he had some sort of weapon there. She'd seen some of Orochimaru's body modification experiments and she wasn't going to assume they didn't have things like that here, no matter how ass backwards they were about most everything else.

"If I give you these shards..." She drawled, tilting her head to the side as she stared at them. She'd been told more than once that the motion was 'eerie'. It was an appellation she approved of, Kushimaru had had it in spades. "What assurances do I have that they won't end up in the wrong hands again?"

This time the silent woman stepped forward, gait smooth. That, combined with her full body suit and the large boomerang, of all fucking things, marked her as a warrior of some kind. "Kagome is able to purify the shards with her miko abilities, which makes it impossible for youkai to use them unless they've been tainted again. Kagome is also the Shikon miko, as such the jewel belongs to her."

That was interesting. The shards definitely _felt_ tainted. It made sense that the shards could be purified, seeing as it was supposed to have been some kind of uber holy gem when it was pure. She'd also heard the whole jewel was capable of granting a single wish. That seemed sort of far fetched, but she'd seen weirder things, like dimension hopping portals to name one.

"We protect every shard in our possession with everything we can." The monk put in, drawing her eyes again. Obviously he was something of a spokesperson, probably because the hanyou regularly spouted profanity.

"Hmm." Nori thought on it for a moment then shrugged. The shards were out of her territory now and as soon as she passed them over they weren't her problem anymore. And if they ended up in the wrong hands again...well, she'd killed people in worse ways than doing nothing. "Okay."

"Okay?" The hanyou repeated, his jaw actually dropping open in shock. Apparently they didn't get cooperation very often.

"Sure, I don't need them." She replied, reaching into her kunai pouch and retrieving her storage scroll. She crouched, giving Soten the opportunity to abandon ship, then unrolled the scroll. "Do you remember which seal, Soten?" She asked the young youkai.

She'd been teaching the demoness how to identify some of Nori's seals, so that she could unseal supplies on her own. For the longest time she'd thought chakra was completely incompatible with youki but that really wasn't so. Soten had to concentrate and focus but she could do small things, like unseal something from storage scrolls and even the basic fire starting jutsu using her youki. She had to focus her entire mind on it, so it wasn't something she could use in combat with the ease of even a genin but it was something. Once Soten had figured out the storage scroll Nori'd purchased another expensive paper scroll and given the demoness her own storage scroll to carry. That way if they were ever separated Soten would have more than enough supplies to last her until Nori found her again.

Not that she would ever lose the little girl, but it was still a precaution. A kunoichi didn't live long unless she was clever and prepared for anything. She'd found over time that while she couldn't sense humans or even spiritualists, she could sense youkai if they were powerful enough. So if Soten got lost Nori could find her anywhere in Japan now that she'd memorized her youki signature.

"Ano..." Soten tapped her chin, scanning the scroll with intent red eyes. They'd gone over the seal for the shards just a few nights ago, so she had a fair chance of remembering it. "Is it that one?" She pointed a clawed finger tip to one in particular.

"Now can you unseal them?" Nori cocked her head in challenge at the little girl and Soten nodded, chin firm. "So show me."

Soten clapped her hands sharply, which they'd found helped her focus her youki to her hands, and crouched over the scroll. Her little brows came together in concentration and Nori had to resist the urge to pinch her cheek. Pinching baby cheeks was totally not the way to go to keep her tough kunoichi cred.

A pile of shards poofed into existence with a popping noise that never happened when Nori did the unsealing and Soten immediately cheered. There was a delighted gasp from the kitsune kit and a puzzled murmur from the monk but Nori ignored that. Almost all the shinobi arts confused people in this world and Nori had all but given up on explaining.

"Good job, brat." She murmured, ruffling the youkai's dark hair, sending her into a protesting shout. Scooping up the shards she stood, then held them out in the palm of her hand. "Here we are!" She said, using that happy tone Chojuro had always said made her look creepy.

It was a blatant challenge. She wasn't going to throw the shards and she _wasn't_ going to come to them either. Dominance was everything in both her old world and this new one, and dominance could be displayed in any number of ways. Making one of them come to her was just another such display. They needed what she had and they had no way of making her give them anything so they had to ask and they had to come and take it themselves. She wanted rid of the shards but she didn't have to make it easy on them.

She could nearly hear the hanyou's teeth grind as he glared at her. If she had to guess he was some kind of canine hanyou, and to them dominance was more important than most other youkai. Kitsune, ookami, and even tanuki were territorial and possessive and they always had some form of alpha. By making him come to her she was blatantly ignoring his position of alpha in his little pack.

But he earned a little of her admiration, just a little, when instead of protesting he walked forward slowly to accept the shards. Nori grinned behind her mask as she tipped the five shards into the palm of his hand. Once his fist closed around them her grin turned a little sadistic. In a flash her hand was closed around his wrist and his eyes widened as he tried to pull back but couldn't. It took a bit of chakra to match him in strength but the look on his face was more than worth it. Messing with an opponents mind was half the battle after all.

"Soten, time to scram." She said evenly, making the girl laugh in excitement and bounce away with more happiness than was probably seemly. "Now, hanyou, I think we need to have a little talk about leaving orphans to fend for themselves..." With that she rammed a chakra laden fist into his soft belly, making all the air whoosh from his lungs and sending him flying...


	4. A Peculiar Case

Chapter Four: A Peculiar Case

Sesshomaru studied the decaying corpse, golden eyes intent and calculating. A battle won in a single decisive blow, an enemy cut down before they could even feel the first inkling of fear. A blow, through the front and out the back, using some form of weapon that he, Sesshomaru, was not familiar with. It was a scenario that he was acquainted with, having seen just such a thing several times before. Although never in his territory as this one was. Always they had been beyond his Northern border. Yet this, an anomaly, was well within his border. A first trespass.

Inhaling deeply, ignoring the putrid stink of rotting flesh with long practice, Sesshomaru let himself envision the scene more closely. Parsing through the scents and marks left behind in this trespassers wake. A figure, scent salty yet sweet, like sea salt and fresh plum blossoms. A confrontation led by the obviously corrupted bear youkai. The youkai had been tainted, mutated into a abomination thrice it's normal size. He could smell the bitter tang of its insanity permeating the air even days afterwards.

A smaller figure, a child, moving away. A young thunder youkai, female, the heel of her boot leaving a mark just there. Small, perhaps even in her first century of growth. She had been unafraid, confident in her protector. A certain eagerness coloring her scent, the natural anticipation of the hunt that all young youkai were prone to.

The woman, because this was certainly a women's scent, had taken three running steps, only three. The strides were long and sure with no hint of hesitation. Her scent stayed perfectly even and he would wager her heart beat had not even skipped. She had pushed off here, the impression just a fraction deeper. And then she'd thrust her weapon forward with her momentum carrying her after it. Blood spraying, flesh tearing, her weapon had gone through seamlessly, like a knife through water. She had been fast enough to flip over the bear youkai's shoulder and catch her weapon accurately on the other side. She had landed, perfectly balanced, and taken one side step to avoid the bear youkai's last blow. And then the beast had fallen, dead before it's brain ever caught up. A smear on the youkai's hakama indicated the place she'd wiped her weapon clean. It was similar but not the same as the mark left behind by a katana. It was long, was his only real observation, long and thin.

He recognized her scent of course. This same scent had been wafting over his Northern border for the last half decade. She had always stayed clear of his borders, even walking beside the border, but never trespassing inside of his marked territory. It had always seemed that she could sense his youki, spread out across his land, and avoided it, as any smart creature would. Instead she had skirted his land carefully, always on her side. A sort of stillness always crept into her scent when she paced his Northern border but she had never come into his territory and she had never smelled afraid. So he had been disinclined to investigate.

The smell of her was familiar and easily recognizable, human but like no human he had ever encountered, not even like his brothers strange miko. Her scent was clean and wholesome, human but with none of the foul decay underlining most human scents. Not even Rin was immune to the decay that came with the passing of time. And yet there was no degradation in this woman's scent, which spoke of a being that was somehow _more_ than human. A being that aged as though of youkai blood. It was a curious puzzle that his agile mind had yet to parse through to the ultimate answer.

If she had been one of the daiyoukai Lords he would have had the right to challenge her for encroaching onto his land without his express permission or giving adequate warning. Of course he, Sesshomaru, the most powerful daiyoukai Lord, had the right to travel anywhere he pleased but this woman did not. And yet she was not an official Lady, no matter that she'd claimed territory to the North. The ookami claimed the Northeast, the cranes the East, the kitsune the Southwest and the neko the Southeast and this woman had claimed unoccupied land, through forethought or accident he was unsure. And yet she was _not_ a recognized Lady so she did not fall under the Laws of Challenge as any of the other Lords might.

He'd heard of her, through his mothers extensive spy network as well as through more official channels. She did everything that a Lady or Lord might. She was a Lady in everything but official name. She protected her lands with a vicious regard that would not have been misplaced among the youkai. She fed those that could not feed themselves. She received offerings and tax from the people, freely given if rumors were true. He had even received word of the common folk calling her the Lady Spirit, of all ridiculous titles. One of his mothers spies had even whispered of a mask covering her face, and how she did not discriminate between youkai and human, rather acted as though there was no difference at all. There had been even more tales of her fleetness of foot, her powerful elemental attacks and her unrivaled strength. And yet she was human...and therefore should be too weak to claim a title of Lady...and yet she was not weak if rumors were true.

Eyes narrowing, Sesshomaru took to the skies with a single bound. He would follow this scent and he, Sesshomaru, would find the answers his mind sought. He would know why this creature was on his land and what she had done to herself to become something _other_ than human.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took a moment of thought to decipher the events surrounding the hole in the ground, that and sharp analytical eyes. She had fashioned an explosive trap, armed with nothing but berries and fire ash. Tilting his head and studying the spray pattern he let a curl of amusement enter his glacial eyes. The trap had hit it's intended target. It would be most difficult for his idiotic little brother to remove all traces of this incident and the reek of his fuming anger permeated the entire length of the trail.

As much as it pleased him to see his moronic little brother suffer, what caught his attention was the strange purple 'wire' she had used to implement her pressure activated ambush. Testing a length, Sesshomaru found the wire both sturdy and slightly sharp, gleaming an odd purple that he had never seen any smithy manage. He had also never felt such fine metal wire before, not even from the best youkai smiths. Perhaps Totosai could manage but he generally worked only in weapons. Raising the thread to his nose he let his brows actually rise in surprise. The strand carried her scent heavily, like a sheen over the 'wire', much in the way that his pelt carried his scent. That led him to only one conclusion.

How...curious. Such an ability should have been beyond a mere human. And yet...this _human_ seemed to be full of these contradictions that made his ravenous curiosity take notice. He was beginning to suspect that the word 'mere' could not be applied to this individual human at all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Staring down at the profane image, Sesshomaru let the edge of his lips curl into the faintest of smirks. Perhaps the image would not have struck him as humorous if the intended target had not been his naive little brother. The boys embarrassment was thick in the air, sour and hot. The image was more suited to a courtesans bedroom, lewd and more than a little far fetched, but Sesshomaru couldn't help but think that if his little brother got so embarrassed over such a thing than he must truly be naive. Not a great surprise.

Underneath the scent of Inuyasha and his companions was the sly amusement of the woman. She had spent some time here, touching the stones and arranging them just so. She had sent the young thunder demoness away, likely to shield her as yet innocent eyes from the proface image. Her scent was awash with a manic glee that tickled Sesshomaru's nose like popping bubbles.

And then her scent just seemed to have washed away, leaving nearly no trail at all. Curious, Sesshomaru followed, and it was only with the very edges of his sensitive senses that he caught her essence at at. How...fascinating. He had no doubt that if his sense of smell had been on a lesser scale, say on scale with Inuyasha's, he would have missed the trail completely. As it was it was not so much her sea breeze scent that he detected but rather an odd numbness that dampened the surrounding scents as well as her own.

It led to a tiny arrow carved into the trunk of a tree some distance away. Already she had led the hanyou on a circling route that had no logical sense. And yet here was the hint that she had not had her fill leading the hanyou around by his nose. If Sesshomaru did not know better he would say these were the tricks of a kitsune. But he did know better and he found the tricks aimed at his idiotic brother...amusing.

Xxxxxxxxxx

More of the wire. Sesshomaru crinkled his nose for the barest instant, assaulted by the scent of Inuyasha's growing rage. Inuyasha had been strung up like prey, belly exposed and vulnerable, ready to be gutted. It was a state that Sesshomaru approved of.

The woman was proving to have a great deal of cleverness. That and a not small amount of both endurance and swiftness. She was keeping ahead of Inuyasha with no sign of strenuous effort whatsoever. He had yet to catch even a hint of worry or the like in her scent at all. She was confident, assured, and positive in her victory should Inuyasha manage to catch up to her. Righteous confidence or unwarranted arrogance he was unsure as of yet. He would wager the former before the latter.

Despite his brothers unworthy status as a half breed he was still the offspring of Inu no Taisho. He was nothing in comparison to he, Sesshomaru, but he was not an insignificant individual either. He had speed and power, more than many hanyou or even some daiyoukai but this woman outstripped him like an untried pup.

And all while in the possession of a pup herself. The thunder youkai was clearly well cared for. He had not scented anything of worry or malcontent from the youngling in his time tracking the pair. He had even identified several times that the woman had stopped unneeded so that the youngling could stretch her legs, much as Sesshomaru did with Rin. Her camp sites along the way had been cleverly hidden, her scent defused in some unknown manner, but he had found them regardless. It had been obvious that the woman hunted for the pup, much like a mother would do for a pup of such an young age. Again much as he himself did for Rin. If nothing else this told him she had a strong maternal drive towards this thunder youkai and she provided without stint or hardship.

This extended chase told him another particularly interesting fact as well. It was clear she had some way of sensing Inuyasha, otherwise she would not go to such trouble as to prepare traps to catch him. He had always assumed she must sense his territory borders, seeing as she skirted them so insidiously but he had never been quite sure _how_ she sensed them. Humans in the general sense were not aware of a youkai's youki. Only those who were trained such as monks and mikos and sometimes even slayers. But even then they were not generally able to sense the subtle marking of his youki around the borders of his land. Some lesser youkai were even incapable of sensing the territory lines. Inuyasha had proven this on more than one occasion. So he had never known if she knew his youki was there through scent, sight, spiritual awareness...he had never known for certain. Yet this chase indicated she must have some form of youki detection at the very least.

Which brought up another interesting oddity. While it was obvious she sensed something from Inuyasha it was unclear whether she realized his bumbling companions were with him. None of the traps were meant to capture more than one individual. To Sesshomaru that suggested that she must sense youki in only a limited capacity, and she might very well be incapable of sensing the reiki from the monk and the miko. But really, it was only conjecture until he was able to observe the source.

Xxxxxx

The entire hot springs was saturated with the chilly sea and sweet flower scent of the human enigma. She and the pup had obviously spent at least a few hours enjoying the water before they had moved on. The bitter scent of Inuyasha's impotent rage was there but Sesshomaru ignored that with long practiced ease. The blooming fragrance of the woman's pleasure was high, cut with the crackling undertone of the young demoness.

An odd energy, unlike any he had yet seen in his travels, was permeating the water of the hot spring. It was fading slowly but marked the water with the woman's scent much like when he used his youki to mark and scent his territory. The smell of plum blossoms rose from the surface of the spring with every tendril of steam. And if he did not know better he would have assumed the very hot spring was filled with salt water.

It had been whispered that she used old magic like a natural born elemental, only she was not constricted to a single element at all. Tales of great tidal waves, washing over her enemies and sweeping them away. Of streams of flame shooting from her lips, heated from her very belly and breathed out like a dragon. Even earthen walls that shot from the ground and rose over fifty feet tall in a matter of seconds. She had used that same sorcery here, perhaps to control the water, and thus left behind her energy cast offs in every drop.

Golden eyes sharp as a blade, he dipped his hand into the water. A tingle of power shot up his arm and Sesshomaru closed his eyes, concentrating on the _feel_ of it. The way it washed down his spine like warm spring rain, pleasant and soft. It was...unlike anything he had ever felt in all his years and in all his travels.

He did not recognize the type of energy she used and it was so different than anything he knew that he could not even begin to guess where it had come from. It was not youki, which meant she had not made a deal with a youkai for power. It was not reiki. It contained no holy properties at all, and in fact did not even contain a 'sting' in it as it rolled over him. It did not even taste of the foulness that usually came with witches and sorcery. So where did she get this odd power? And could she truly use it to the extent that he had been told?

There was a crumpled bit of parchment, thrown to the side at the edge of the path leading to the hot spring. Crouching he plucked it up and straightened it across his knee, leaving wet marks across the thick parchment. One brow rose the smallest fraction as he studied the childish drawing.

To purchase parchment for such a childish endeavor spoke a message all on its own. Parchment was not a poor man's commodity. It was a staple that was rarely seen by peasants at all and certainly not this fine of a quality. Either she was not poorly supplied with gold of her own or she was adept at stealing what she wanted. Based on the rumors he would be more inclined to name this parchment part of her offerings and 'tax'. This lent even more credence to the rumors of her benevolent protection.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

His range of senses were wide and far. He could sense his brother many miles away, his youki flaring wildly. That in itself was not such an odd occurrence, the half breed had a habit of flaring his youki at the slightest irritant. But there, close to Inuyasha, was another and if Sesshomaru had not studied the water at the hot springs he never would have spotted her subtle signature. Scented her yes, even from this distance her scent tickled his nose, but he would not have registered her energy at all. The thought was mildly irritating.

It was like a living breathing pillar of sea water, trapped miles from the ocean. Eddies and currents rippling through it strongly, in and out, like the tides. It was subtle, extremely so, nigh on unnoticeable until he turned his full focus on it. And then it was almost impossible to see anything else. Massive, held in wait, but ready to burst into motion at the first sign of weakness. Like the great sharks he had seen in his travels, bursting from the water in a violent display of raw power, appearing from no where and returning to the deep just as quickly. Piercing and sharp and chilled, with a tang that sat at the back of his throat like the finest salt.

Sesshomaru compressed his youki to nothing, deciding his curiosity warranted observation before interaction. The predator must know every movement of the prey. He must be able to predict the motion of the prey before the prey knew it was even being watched. He would watch this woman and then decide on his next course of action. Whether that would be annihilating her where she stood for her trespass or something else, he had not yet decided.

It did not take him more than a few moments to close the distance. It took him a matter of seconds to find a vantage point. He settled and turned his eyes to his quarry, prepared to watch and learn. And then he couldn't help but stare, never having seen such an individual, even across the sea in foreign lands.

She was as tall as a youkai female, long of limb and standing with a sort of negligent grace that would not have been misplaced in court. Her purple mane was wild and free, kept long as was youkai tradition. A pale mask veiled her features and her arms and neck were a soft golden tan, but without the tone of those native to Japan. She was dressed as a warrior but in clothes that were fashioned with the distinct flare of a foreigner. The long slender hilt of a sword rose over one shoulder, thinner than any sword he had ever seen before with a simple wrapped hilt and an eye like a needle. It was only with his exceptionally sharp eyes that he spotted the thin strand of purple 'wire', tied to the eye and trailing down to the woman's longest braid.

She held one arm out, offering the glittering shards of the Shikon no Tama with nonchalant unconcern. She was displaying dominance by waiting for the idiotic hanyou to give up his place of power. By coming to her on her terms he was marking her as the alpha in the scenario. Her scent was thick with a sort of building thrill, like the sharp tang of the winter sea, and he knew. Like the shark he had likened her power to, she would strike in an explosion of sudden violence. The hanyou and his pathetic pack may have relaxed their guard but he, Sesshomaru, knew better. This was a female prepared to shed blood, eager to do so even. It was the most peculiar thing, this female who seemed a youkai in human skin.


End file.
